Undergraduate Social Work Advising

In the video below, Dr. Sarah Hessenauer discusses the basics of advising for social work majors. Below the video you can find a list of frequently asked questions about undergraduate advising in the Department of Social Work.

Advising Basics Video

Dr. Sarah Hessenauer walks you through the basics of social work advising in this video (duration 15:07). Please note, students are considered sophomores and are assigned to social work faculty for academic advising once they successfully complete 24 credits, not 30 credits as the video states. Also, Lori Trimble's email address is trimblel@uww.edu (the first l is missing in the video).

Undergraduate Social Work Advisng FAQ

To find your advisor's name go to the Student Center page of your WINS account. Your advisor's name appears in a box in the lower right hand side of that page. Consult the Social Work Faculty/Staff Directory or use the UW-Whitewater Directory Search feature on the UWW homepage to find your advisor's office location, phone number, and email address. During the fall and srping semesters, their office hours are availble here.

All social work majors are required to meet with their academic advisor before registering for spring and fall semester courses until they are enrolled in or have completed SOCWORK 473. Advising is not required before registering for summer courses, but we suggest discussing your plans for summer courses with your advisor when you meet with her/him in the spring to plan for fall registration.

All social work majors are welcome to meet with their academic advisors outside of these required meetings to discuss career goals, learn more about graduate school, explore services and supports available to students who find themselves struggling, or explore extra-curricular opportunities to enhance your education. You are encouraged to develop a relationship with your advisor.

Your academic advisor can help you with questions about requirements for your major and degree well as questions about academic policies. Your advisor can help you select courses that meet your requirements and that are appropriate to your interests and preparation. Advisors can also answer questions about finding campus resources and joining student organizations. You can ask your advisor for guidance with academic difficulties and with problems you may have with other faculty, staff, or students. You may also ask your advisor for help with finding career advice and with finding assistance for personal problems. Academic advisors are not trained as career counselors and do not serve as psychological counselors, but UW-Whitewater employs trained professionals in these areas; your academic advisor can help you contact them.

Required academic advising begins in mid-March and mid-October each year, after the Schedule of Classes for the upcoming semester is released by the Registrar's Office but before priority registration begins. In the weeks leading up to academic advising, each social work academic advisor will email their advisees with her/his specific protocol on how to set up an advising meeting. Each faculty member does this differently, so please follow their specific instructions when they contact you.

If you would like to meet with your advisor outside of these times, please email or call to him/her to schedule an appointment or visit during their office hours .

Once you have met with your advisor, you will be given a link to an online advising survey. On this survey, you will you will give the department feedback about your most recent academic advising meeting and your current Social Work advisor. Survey results are sent to the Academic Department Associate (ADA), Lori Trimble. Your name will not be shared with the faculty member you are evaluating. Your scores will be reported and shared with Social Work faculty in summary format only.

Upon completion of this survey, your advising hold will be removed so you can register for courses. It may take 1-2 business days for your hold to be removed, so please take this survey as soon as possible after meeting with your advisor. Do not wait until your assigned time to register to complete this survey. Doing so will delay your ability to register by 1-2 business days. Please note, this only applies to advising holds. If you have any other holds on your account, those cannot be resolved through the Department of Social Work.

Go to your Student Center home page in your WINS account and look for a box on the right hand column labeled "Enrollment Dates." Clicking on the link inside that box will take you to a menu of academic terms. Select the button next to the term for which you want to register, then click "continue" for information about when you may register for that term.

Note: You may only register at that time if you have resolved all of your registration holds.

If you have a registration hold that means there is some administrative task you must complete before you may register for courses for the upcoming semester. To find out whether you have any registration holds check the "Holds" box in the right hand column of your Student Center page in your WINS account. Clicking on a particular hold will give you more information about whom to contact about that hold, what type of hold it is, and how to get the hold removed.

A common registration hold is an advising hold placed on all* social work majors' accounts by the Registrar's Office each March and October. If you have a social work advising hold you must meet with your academic advisor and complete an advising survey. Once the meeting and advising evaluation survey are satisfactorily completed, the Social Work ADA will remove your social work advising hold. (*Freshmen are automatically excluded because they receive advising from the AAEC in Roseman, not from Social Work advisors.)

Another common hold, abbreviated TAC, is the Terms and Conditions for Enrollment/Credit Agreement. This document contains information for students about their responsibilities for classes for which they register, payment plan information (fall and spring terms only), and charges on student accounts. The document can be viewed and signed electronically by accessing it from the Student Center Page in WINS. A new agreement will be made available prior to the start of registration each term to allow for early completion. You can read more here.

You may also have a registration hold for a variety of other reasons, including the need to pay a balance on your financial account, addressing lost equipment or textbooks, completing financial aid forms, etc. Academic advisors can help you understand these other holds, but cannot remove the holds. Be sure to check for and take care of holds well before you are scheduled to register for the next semester.

Please email our ADA, Lori Trimble, at trimblel@uww.edu if you need special permission for a SOCIAL WORK course. You do NOT need to email the instructor of the course, your advisor, or the department chair. If you email your instructor and/or advisor, they will forward your email to our ADA. She handles emails in the order they are received, so your request will be processed sooner if you email her directly. If she needs input or consent from your advisor, the instructor, or the chair, she will contact them.

Below are examples of situations where students will need permission in WINS to enroll in a course:

If you are currently enrolled in a prerequisite for one of your social work courses, WINS will not allow you to register until you successfully complete the prerequisite. Our ADA, Lori Trimble, can give you permission in WINS to bypass this if you have met all other requirements for the course. Email her at trimblel@uww.edu to explain the situation. Be sure to include your student ID number and which OPEN section of the course for which you’d like to register.

If a class is full and you need it to stay on track for graduation, email our ADA, Lori Trimble, at trimblel@uww.edu and explain the situation. Be sure to include your student ID number in the email. If we can accommodate your request, she will give you permission in WINS to override the enrollment cap for a specific section of the course. We do our best to accommodate as many students as possible, but some circumstances (like the physical size of classrooms) are out of our hands. The earlier you make your requsest, the better.

All field students need permission in WINS to enroll in SOCWORK 493. Our ADA, Lori Trimble, will email you with specific instructions for registering for this course. You do not need to request permission.

Note: It is the policy of the Social Work Department to NOT overload a full section of a course until all sections of that course are full.

Note: Our ADA, Lori Trimble, can only give you permission in WINS to enroll in SOCIAL WORK courses. If you need assistance or special permission to register for a non-social work course, you must contact the department that offers the course.

This is a new requirement and only applies to students whose AARs show "Admission to the Social WOrk Major" under the "Milestones: Social Work" section. See images below:

Sample Milestone PDF View of AAR:

Sample Milestone WINS View of AAR:

If this milestone appears on your AAR, you do need to be accepted to the Social Work Professional Training Program before you can register for SOCWORK 371. You can find more information about applying and a link to the online application on the right side of our department's homepage.

If this milestone does not appear on your AAR, you do not need to be accepted to the Social Work Professional Training Program before you can register for SOCWORK 371. You were a social work major before this curriculum change went into effect; therefore, you have been grandfathered in under the old curriculum.

When deciding between a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree and a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree, consider your strengths and review the BA and BS degree requirements. Graduate programs and employers usually don't have a preference, unless you are planning to attend a research graduate school or go into the medical field. If your future plans invlove applying to a research graduate program or working in the medical field, a BS is encouraged.

A Bachelor of Arts Degree in the College of Letters and Sciences requires 6 units of upper division course work (300/400) from the arts, humanities or social science fields. These courses may not be from the department of the student's major or minor. All 6 units may be from the same subject. Select from Anthropology, Art, Art History, Asian Studies, Communications, Economics, English, Film, Foreign Language, Geography (excluding technical or physical courses), History, Liberal Studies, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Race and Ethnic Studies, Religious Studies, Sociology, Theatre, Women's Studies, or any UW-Whitewater 400 level travel study course. Any course from the above mentioned departments numbered 496 or 498 are evaluated by the Assistant Dean on a case by case basis. So, it is important to request that evaluation prior to enrolling in the course. Exchange and 999-numbered courses are evaluated in the same manner. Courses numbered 493 may not be used to fulfill this requirement. Courses from the following departments are NOT ALLOWED: Journalism, Criminology, Counseling, Education, Physical Education, Recreation, Safety, Social Work (except SOCWORK 380), Math, any of the Natural Sciences, and any Business courses.

To fullfil this BA requirement, first consider your interests. Which of the above areas sound interesting to you? Have you taken introductory level courses or core courses as part of your General Education requirements that piqued your interest? Once you have narrowed down your area(s) of interest, search the course listings in the undergraduate course catalog for upper division courses. Read the brief course descriptions and check that you have the prerequisites for courses that interest you. A conversation with your academic advisor might also help you make these selections.

Important note: Even if you have completed or are enrolled in all of your courses for this requirement the courses will not automatically appear in the appropriate section of your academic advising report (AAR). You must request a personalization for this to happen. Once you have taken or are at least enrolled in the courses you wish to use for this requirement you may request the personalization via the online form found here.

Students will need to fill out the Undergraduate Degree/Major/Minor Change form and follow the directions below based on the change being requested. Be sure to fill out the form completely. The center colunm should list your current degree, major(s), and minor(s). The right column should list your desired degree, major(s), and minor(s), not just what your are changing. If you leave a section of the right column blank that will indicate that you want to drop the correspoinding major or minor in the middle colunm.

Major Change - Students should complete the form and take it to their current major's department office. That office will release the advising file to the student to take with the change form to the department office of the new major. The office of the new major will process the request. You must indicate on your form BA or BS to declare a Social Work major. See "Should I declare a BA or a BS degree?" above to help you decide. Your minor can be declared at a later date if you are undecided.

Adding a Second Major - Students should complete the form and take it to the office of the second major they wish to declare.

Degree Change - Students should complete the form and take it to their current major's office. Social Work majors have the option of a BA or a BS degree. See "Should I declare a BA or a BS degree?" above and/or speak to your advisor to help you decide.

Minor Change - Students should complete the form and take it to their current major's office to declare a minor, drop a minor, or add a second minor. Social Work majors are required to select a minor (or a second major). This list of Approved L&S minors may be useful in deciding.

Note: The social work office is Laurentide 5201, or completed forms can be emailed to trimblel@uww.edu.

Yes, you can, but you must plan ahead. Please keep your UWW residency requirements (30 units at UWW-including 25% of major & 25% of minor, plus the last 15 units) in mind. If you are taking a social work course elsewhere, the university must have a CSWE accredited social work program. If you want to see what classes at other UW system schools might transfer back to UWW, you can use this tool. If you find a class you want to take, you'll need to complete the Transfer Credit Agreement BEFORE you take the course. Once you finish the class at the other university, you'll need to have your transcripts from that school sent to UWW.

The Registrar's Office sets and publishes deadlines for adding and dropping classes, changing class grading bases and withdrawing from the university as part of the Schedule of Classes. Students must adhere to the deadlines to take advantage of tuition/fee refunds and to avoid academic consequences. Nonattendance does not exempt students from their financial and academic responsibilities. To see the deadlines for the current semester, visit this webpage, choose the current semester, and click on the 'Deadlines - Add/Drop, Withdraw, Refund' link. These dates can also be found on the UWW Calendar of Events. If it is before the deadline listed for adding or dropping a course, you can make the change in WINS yourself.

If the deadline to add or drop a course has passed, you may be able to complete a Late Add or Late Drop form. Either requires permission from the instructor of the course and the chair of the department that offers the course, as well as approval from Assistant Dean Susan Johnson if it is a L&S course. These are not gauranteed and are reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

In extreme situations it may be possible to medically withdraw from courses and/or the university outside of these deadlines. This process is handled through the Dean of Students Office.

You should apply to graduate at least one full semester prior to your final term so your academic record can be checked . It is important that your entire academic record is reviewed prior to the final term of enrollment in order to identify any problems and resolve them in time for you to graduate. Be sure you will meet the minimum GPA requirements for graduation, will have completed all of your major, minor, degree, and university requirements, and will have earned at least 120 credits at the end of the term you wish to graduate. It is possible to complete all of the graduation requirements on your AAR with less than 120 credits, but you cannot graduate with less than 120 credits. You can apply for graduation here.